Life's Lessons
by fowl68
Summary: The same sentence that he used to hear when she was still alive is the same one he wants to yell at Naruto sometimes when the similarities get to be too much for him.


**Disclaimer:**Don't own anything. Words in bold are from an email I got from my brother. The italics in the stories themselves are the other part of the bold.

**Author's Note: **Going to South America for Winter Break! I can't wait! Even though I do get a little nervous on planes, but I'm prepared. I bought Lord of the Rings and a portable DVD player for the eight hour flight. Gonna watch me some Wolverine and the Dark Knight. Definitely some News Radio.

I saw Howl's Moving Castle for the first time on Sunday. I loved Howl, Calcifer and the magical scarecrow with the nice hat. I need to save up some money so I can buy it on DVD.

-~-~-~-~

_Most of all the other beautiful things in life come by twos and threes, by dozens and hundreds. Plenty of roses, stars, sunsets, rainbows, brothers and sisters, aunts and cousins, comrades and friends - but only one mother in the whole world. ~Kate Douglas Wiggin_

-~-~-~-~

**I OWE MY MOTHER……**

**1. My mother taught me **_**TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE**_**.**

Obito and Shisui were a flurry of fists and feet, wrestling on the floor. A familiar stern knock came at their door and Obito's mother, with her features like every other Uchiha, save for the amusement that belied the warning in the gray eyes.

_"If you're going to kill each other, do it outside. I just finished cleaning."_

**My mother taught me **_**RELIGION**_**.**

Chouji reaches for the applesauce, high on third shelf of the refrigerator. His tongue pokes out from between his lips as he stands on his toes, fingers straining to reach. Smiling when he fells the cool glass, he pulls it towards him. After carefully spooning it into a bowl, he moves to sit on the couch, unable to wait for the Saturday morning cartoons to begin.

"Hey, Chouji."

Said person jumps when he hears Shikamaru's voice, the condensation on the bowl making it slip from his hands. The two boys watch in mute horror and anticipation as the bowl falls in slow motion, spilling its contents across the rug. And, in unison, they flinch when they hear Chouji's mother stand behind them.

_"You better pray that will come out of the carpet."_

**My mother taught me about **_**TIME TRAVEL**_**.**

It hasn't been long since Jiraiya moved in with Tsunade. It was for safety reasons, first and foremost. Their nightmares were known to get rather violent and both had their own troubles and enemies and more than enough of both. But he'd never known that she could remind him so much of his own mom.

_"If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!"_

**My mother taught me **_**LOGIC**_**.**

Minato looked almost fearfully at his mother. She wasn't a shinobi. His father had fallen in love with the candle maker that lived two houses down from him after years of not seeing her. But despite her not being as skilled a warrior as his father, she was a fearsome sight to behold when she was on a shopping mission.

"Mom, do I have to go with you to try on the dresses for the festival?" He added a pleading note to his voice. He'd much rather be running miles for the Academy instructors than be forced to do this.

"Yes, you do."

"Why?"

_"Because I said so, that's why."_

**My mother taught me **_**MORE LOGIC**_**.**

Iruka kicked his legs, making the swing take him higher and higher until he could feel the chains do that odd little jump and if he tilted his head back just so, he could see the pipe to which the chains were attached. Someone, a familiar someone, was calling his name.

_"Iruka,_ _if you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you're not going to the store with me."_

**My mother taught me **_**FORESIGHT**_**.**

Sasuke cocked his head at his mother, a confused frown on his lips as his mother told him things that she felt he should know while she cooked. The last one she'd said had made no sense whatsoever to him, but he decided to just smile and nod. That had been what Itachi had told him to do when Mikoto started on one of her long tangents.

_"Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident."_

**My mother taught me **_**IRONY**_**.**

Kiba felt some tears slip from his eyes after his mother had chewed him out for his grades at the Academy. He didn't care overmuch about the grades, but his mom had a talent for things like this. He heard her stern voice float from the kitchen.

_"Keep crying, and I'll give you something to cry about."_

**My mother taught me about the science of **_**OSMOSIS**_**.**

Minato sighed as he looked at the people decorating his dining table. His students and his wife, the people dearest to his heart, and sometimes he wondered why that was. This was one of those times. Obito and Kakashi were off on one of their random arguments, this one seeming to be on whether or not the ramen industry was part of a conspiracy theory. Or, that had been the topic last time he'd checked.

Finally, Kushina set down her chopsticks, fierce hazel-green eyes glaring at the boys across the table.

_"Shut your mouth and eat your supper."_

**My mother taught me about **_**CONTORTIONISM**_**.**

Kiba tried not to let the laughter show on his face when Naruto tried to twist his head to see the back of his neck because of something his mother said.

_"Will you look at that dirt on the back of your neck!"_

**My mother taught me about **_**STAMINA.**_

Hayate forced himself to think of happier things than the green…thing…that was on his plate. Like bunnies. Or unicorns. From the look Genma was giving him across the table, his 'happy thoughts' were looking as ridiculous on his face as they were in his head. But he knew better than to try and sneak the green beasts from his plate. His mother was leaning her hip on the table, giving him that look that he swore mothers slaved over learning during their nine months of pregnancy.

_"You'll sit there until all that spinach is gone."_

**My mother taught me about **_**WEATHER**_**.**

Lee had always believed that Tenten was, both predictably and unexpectedly, the maternal figure of their team. She would sit you down and tell you to shut up while she stitched you back together, and still make you your favorite dinner not three minutes afterwards.

Of course, the first time she'd come into his room, half-supporting him as he wasn't fully healed from that fight with Kimmimaro, she'd arched an eyebrow at the sight of it.

_"This room of yours looks as if a tornado went through it."_

**My mother taught me about **_**HYPOCRISY**_**.**

Naruto's waving his arms wildly, gesturing as he speaks. His voice raises and lowers with his excitement, but Sakura has to cut in more than once when he's getting out of hand with the details.

_"If I told you once, I've told you a million times. Don't exaggerate!"_

**My mother taught me the **_**CIRCLE OF LIFE**_**.**

Neji has to stifle his chuckles when Tenten has a bad day and their children are acting up. She's standing there, shoulders back and fists on her hips, staring them down.

_"I brought you into this world, and I can take you out."_

**My mother taught me about **_**BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION**_**.**

Kakashi's not sure how many times he's heard that in the first few years he's been alive. In later years, it would be all he would be able to remember of the woman who had given birth to him and it would be all his mind would scream at him after his father's suicide years later. But that same sentence is the same one he wants to yell at Naruto sometimes when the similarities get to be too much for him.

_"Stop acting like your father!"_

**My mother taught me about **_**ENVY**_**.**

Itachi had only arched an eyebrow at his mother when she'd started off on her thankfulness speech, but had said nothing, choosing instead to grab a book off of the end table by the couch and get outside. Sometimes, he couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or not.

_"There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don't have wonderful parents like you do."_

16. **My mother taught me about **_**ANTICIPATION**_**.**

Asuma glanced over at his brother, both grimacing at the imagined things that were going to happen after their mother had said the dreaded sentence.

_"Just wait until we get home."_

**My mother taught me about **_**RECEIVING**_**.**

Kankuro and Temari wondered how long they could make the trip to the market drag out. Neither of them were looking forward to going home right now.

_"You are going to get it when you get home!"_

**My mother taught me **_**MEDICAL SCIENCE**_**.**

Her mother tugged on her hand to jerk her out of her trance at the dresses in the window of the shop. They were lovely, to be sure. All long and flowing with beads at the bodice and some lace at the sleeves.

Another tug when Sakura's feet dragged a little, eyes still glued to the dresses.

_"If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they are going to get stuck that way."_

**My mother taught me **_**ESP**_**.**

"You're going out with the boys?"

Ino looks back at her mother, wallet in her pocket and house key on her belt loop. "Yeah." She wasn't sure why her mother stopped her. She'd known Chouji and Shikamaru since before they could crawl.

"Take your sweater. It's chilly outside."

Ino rolled her eyes. It was cooler outside now that summer had died down, but to call it chilly was a bit of an exaggeration. "I'll be fine, mom. We're just going to the movies."

Her mother fixed her with a stern look. _"Put your sweater on; don't you think I know when you are cold?"_

**My mother taught me **_**HUMOR**_**.**

Shikamaru sits on the rail of their porch, enjoying the summer day. He can hear the lawnmower's motor begin to rumble and then there's the regular warning that's become more habit than anything.

"Be careful with that lawnmower. It's got some razor sharp blades and if it cuts grass, it can cut you." Temari still wasn't able to trust the machines that people in Konoha used to keep their lawns in order, even after twelve years of marriage and living here. But then, there'd been no need for such things out in Suna.

Shikamaru doesn't need to see his son's face to see the exasperated look. "I'll be fine, mom. Seriously."  
Just before Temari joins him on the porch, she tells the boy, _"When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me."_

**My mother taught me **_**HOW TO BECOME AN ADULT**_**.**

Shino looked down at the plate before looking back up at his mother. He wasn't a particularly picky eater, but vegetables were just not on his tasty list. But his mother always told him the same thing and sometimes he thinks that the main character in the story was a smart kid. Never wanting to grow up.

Shino had seen grown-ups that came to his father to get the antidotes to poisons and such. They were all scarred, some missing limbs or eyes, but all were scarred. There was Raidou, who came by fairly often with Genma and Hayate to see if his father wanted to go out for drinks. Raidou had burn scars that stretched the skin on his nose and cheeks and Shino can remember the time when all three came, very serious looks on their faces while Hayate was slumped over, vomiting blood. His father had worked as hard as he could, but the poison had spread to the lungs too quickly and while it wouldn't kill him right away, it would certainly damage him permanently.

Seeing all that, and more, Shino thinks it's no wonder that Peter Pan never wanted to grow up and whenever his mother serves him vegetables, he thinks that maybe he wouldn't want to grow up either.

_"If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up."_

**My mother taught me **_**GENETICS**_**.**

Kurenai smiles down at her son, who's begun teething. And she gives him the teething rings, but he prefers pocky and non-salty pretzel sticks or slightly cool French fries to the things that were given to her at the baby shower.

And everytime he's mouthing one of those food items, sometimes letting it wobble between his lips, she chuckles a little and tells him, _"You're just like your father."_

**My mother taught me about my **_**ROOTS**_**.**

Konohamaru has this habit of leaving doors open. Refrigerators, cabinets, front doors, it didn't matter. He leaves them open. It used to annoy his mother when, after school, he opens the fridge to pull out ham, cheese and mayonnaise to make a sandwich and leaves the fridge open as he makes his snack.

But that she didn't mind so much. She minded it a lot when he left the front door open when he ran out the door for school.

_ "Shut that door behind you. Do you think you were born in a barn?"_

**My mother taught me **_**WISDOM**_**.**

Naruto likes to curl on the couch in Tsunade's office on the really cold days that he feels laziness set in. There's an old blanket thrown over the back of it that he takes advantage of and he'll relax and listen to the scratch of the pen on the mountains of paperwork, the clinks of the ever-present sake bottle and the quiet Christmas songs that are playing on the radio at this time of the year.

One day, when she puts her pen down and is stretching and massaging her finger joints, he asks, "Why do you do that?"  
Tsunade glances at him. "Another part of getting old, brat."

Naruto looks down at his hands, smooth, like hers are now, though he's fairly certain that when she goes home, if she ever does, if she ever makes it, that she lets down the illusion of young hands. But he can't imagine his skin getting more wrinkled than they do when he spends the day in the hot springs or aching more than they used to when his fingers weren't yet accustomed to the constant position of the sword and various other weapons he'd learned from Tenten and the ANBU. And he doesn't think that he'll be getting to fifty-something. The lifespan of shinobi isn't usually that long.

Naruto tells her so and Tsunade chuckles a little. "You brat, are astoundingly lucky. You'll probably be outliving me."

Naruto arches an eyebrow because he can't imagine the village without Tsunade, just like it had been with the Sandaime. To almost everyone, they couldn't remember a time when he hadn't been there. Now, Naruto can remember a time without Tsunade, but it gets harder and harder every year.

Maybe she reads the look on his face because she smiles and says,_"When you get to be my age, you'll understand."_

**And my favorite:** **My mother taught me about **_**JUSTICE.**_

They're all enjoying an afternoon outside. And 'all' means _all_. Temari's leaning back into Shikamaru; Sakura excuses herself from Ino and Chouji to take her husband off of general babywatcher duty. He'd gotten distracted by something and was sketching it rather than the kids. Gaara couldn't make it, too many Kage-ly duties, leaving Lee to be chasing down the kids that Sai wasn't watching. Naruto wonders aloud when they all became official babysitters and he can feel Sasuke shrug beside him.

As they watch the kids run and shout, Kiba asks out loud if their mothers all said something about if they had kids one day and everyone smiles and calls back affirmatives. When Naruto asks "What'd they say?", they all reply that they're mothers all said the same thing:

_"One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you"._

--/-/-/-/-/-/-/

**Author's Note:** So how was it? I kept having to stop and leave this fic alone for like a week because I could only write like a few sentences at a time. Probably should've saved it for Mother's Day, but I can always figure something else out.


End file.
